The Montreal Canadiens didn’t need long to get on the board Tuesday night, but the name on the first goal of the season was still a bit of a surprise.
Josh Anderson opened the 2026-27 campaign with Montreal’s first goal, finishing a slick play after Alexandre Carrier’s shot popped up into the air. Anderson waited for the puck to drop, then knocked it out of mid-air and past Sergei Bobrovsky for the Canadiens’ first tally of the year. Carrier earned the assist.
Montreal had already watched Toronto strike early for the second straight season. The Maple Leafs scored 48 seconds into the game, following a pattern from last year’s opener when they scored exactly one minute in. The Canadiens answered later in the first period, which means they’ve now scored in the opening frame in four straight seasons.
For Anderson, the goal fit a strange but familiar pattern. He has not exactly been a quick starter over the years.
Last season, his first goal didn’t come until the ninth game. In 2024-25, he scored in the second game.
The season before that, it took him 25 games to find the net.
Still, Anderson has been a steady source of offense in Montreal. He is in his seventh season with the Canadiens and has scored 14 or more goals in six of them. Over the last three seasons, though, his production has dipped, after he averaged 19 goals per season in his first three years with the team and then just under 13 over the past three.
The goal also came with a little extra weight attached. Anderson is entering the season after being named alternate captain in place of Brendan Gallagher. Mike Matheson is the other alternate captain this year, while Nick Suzuki returns as captain for the fifth straight season.
Anderson getting the first one is notable on a roster that includes Ivan Demidov, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Cole Caufield, who scored the team’s first goal in two of the previous four seasons. Even so, any scoring help beyond the usual suspects can only make life easier for Montreal as the season moves along.
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For Montreal, the bigger picture is familiar: the club wants to keep adding talent, but the right deal has not materialized yet. The Canadiens also have their hands full on the contract front, with negotiations ongoing for defenseman Simon Edvinsson in Detroit and cap space questions continuing to shape the market. In that kind of environment, every possible move gets squeezed through a tighter lens, and the next step for Montreal may depend less on intent than on whether a deal can finally be structured in a way the other side accepts. [Read more 🡒]
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Green said Sanderson was not ready to join the group after leaving a recent preseason game early, and the Senators will keep assessing him before they head out. For Ottawa, the timing matters as much as the injury itself, because any uncertainty around one of its top defenders can ripple through the lineup this close to opening night. [Read more 🡒]